Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Charu Sharma | charz.13@gmail.com, charusharmaishere@gmail.com

Stolen Freedom: A Documentary Film

Film and Video Communication | GDPD
Guide: Shilpa Das
Sponsor: Ford Foundation, NID

Keywords
Tibet
Freedom
Youth
Exile

Stolen Freedom is a film about the younger generation of the exiled Tibetan community in India. It is an effort to show the struggle and turmoil that the Tibetans have gone through in their 52 years of living as refugees. The issue of Tibet has always been highlighted in the international media, with the spotlight on its leader, the Dalai Lama and on the occasional acts of resistance shown by Tibetans in Tibet and in exile against the Chinese government.

The crisis of identity and struggle for a stable future in a country different from one’s own is something most people might not be aware of. The Tibetan refugee community in India, with its youth-driven freedom movement, is constantly striving to preserve of its rich culture.

With a narrative that has been strung together by poetry and interviews of young Tibetans, Stolen Freedom is about their struggle for the freedom of their homeland and the work they do within their community to strengthen it. I have used ‘fact-plates’ to give the viewer a general idea about the Tibet issue. The music used in the film is also Tibetan.

When I started work on this film, my greatest fear was that, as someone who is not from the Tibetan community, I would not be able to do justice to the subject and end up making a superficial, factual film. Stolen Freedom is my honest effort to portray the lives and work of individuals belonging to the community. I learnt a great deal about filmmaking and also about life from the generosity that was shown to me by the people I met during the course of this project.